The sun was sinking in an azure sky over Venice Beach in Southern California. Waves lapped gently as light glinted off the Pacific Ocean. From his wheelchair on a pier, Greg Moore could see surfers and fishermen dotting the horizon and feel the pulse of the carnival-like throngs along the boardwalk.

“It was a picture perfect moment,” he recalls. “And if you closed your eyes, it felt like paradise.”

It was also one of too many memorable scenes to count this year for the Kitchener man. And they came largely thanks to one little online ad.

Now do you remember Moore? He’s not the sort one forgets. The ad he posted got him a fair bit of attention last summer.

Moore, 42, has a big sense of humour, an even bigger sense of adventure. He’s been a quadriplegic for 24 years since a motorcycle accident broke his spine in five places. But last summer he decided it was time for a road trip to California. No 120-kilogram (264 pounds) wheelchair was going to stop him. All he needed was a couple of travelling companions.

So Moore did what lots of people do when they want to strike a car-sharing deal. He went to kijiji.ca. His post was so memorable that the Star wrote about it and a couple of television stations came calling.

His destination: Los Angeles, via back roads and every kitschy pit stop he could find. His pitch: he would cover costs, provide his own customized van, and pay $25 a day per person for anyone willing to drive, hoist him in and out of his chair, and tend to his personal care.

In the ad, he mused about seeing “every small town giant ball of wool” and engaging in some “non-wheelchair activities” like wrangling a buffalo. Emails from intrigued and willing candidates flooded in.

So now, five months later, you get to hear the rest. Starting with the word “amazing,” which is how Moore describes the two-month odyssey. He’s not talking just about the scenery either, but the fact that three strangers and one wheelchair logged 17,000 kilometres together (and “I don’t even want to think about how many hours”) and are still on speaking terms.

Those strangers, Brampton teacher Amy Cameron, 29, and Dan Scott, 24, a Kitchener personal trainer, are now his friends. They give a whole new meaning to the word teamwork, one often putting on Moore’s right shoe while the other did the left.

And the highlights? Well, where to start? There was the herd of elk that ambled across the road in Yellowstone National Park. There was the massive waterfall in Yosemite, viewed against the backdrop of a colourful sunset, the serene mountain air of Sisters, Ore., and the breathtaking 800-foot redwood trees of California. There was also Moore’s first-ever comedy gig at a club in Philadelphia, and the discovery of Carhenge, one of America’s strangest art installations consisting of dead automobiles.

Like most voyages, all didn’t go according to plan during the $34,000 journey, which was financed through a loan against his house. He hadn’t planned on going sightseeing in any medical clinics but got an infection and needed antibiotics.

He never did get to wrangle buffalo. But the tourists did see a bison strutting down one lane of the highway in the mountains. There are photos to prove it. And they did find the wool — well, close enough. They stumbled on the world’s biggest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas. They also scored studio tickets to The Price is Right in Hollywood. The best part? “During the commercials, when (host) Drew Carey teased the contestants about the stupid bids they had just made.”

Moore would do it again, but next time without a long-term destination in the middle. Staying in California for almost a month broke the sense of being on a road trip.

And after seven days at home, he is already planning the next journey.

“Within the first three days, I knew I didn’t get the travel bug out of me,” he wrote on his trip blog, www.rollingjourney.com. “I want to be back on the road.”

Next stop: Florida, leaving this week. If all goes according to plan, five will be in the van, including Cameron and the 15-year-old boy Moore treats as his own son (the son of a former partner).

After that, he hopes to put together a presentation — from his 6,000 photos and 40 hours of video — and take it into local school classrooms. He hopes it will show kids that “when you see someone in a wheelchair you don’t have to assume they are unable.”

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